Co-hosts Equatorial Guinea produced one of the all-time Africa Cup of Nations upsets when reaching the last eight and dumping Senegal out of the finals. The National Lightning left it incredibly late to earn a 2-1 win over their supposedly illustrious foes. After Randy opened the scoring in Bata, Senegal were facing elimination until Moussa Sow’s 89th-minute equaliser. But Kily produced a stunning 25-yard drive deep into added time to send a nation into raptures. The goal came in the 94th minute to spark frenzy among the 40,000 fans inside the Estadio de Bata, yet there was still time for Equatorial Guinea centre-back Laurence Doe to be sent off. When the final whistle did eventually blow three minutes later, Equatoguineans across the world were in dreamland while any watching neutrals were probably left similarly open-mouthed. The result means Newcastle strikers Demba Ba and Papiss Demba Cisse will be back in Premier League action earlier than expected. To put the win into context, the co-hosts’ coach Gilson Paulo only met his squad three weeks ago as he was parachuted in to lead one of the lowest-ranked teams to ever contest a Nations Cup. Lying 151st in Fifa’s rankings and making their tournament debut, the National Lightning have made a mockery of the form guide, producing a gutsy display to knock out this year’s third favourites. Senegal came into the competition with Africa’s best forward line but neither Cisse, Ba nor Dame Ndoye could take any of the presentable first-half chances that came their way. Pointless from their first two games, the West Africans can no longer qualify - meaning Zambia will take Group A’s last quarter-final place if they avoid defeat against Equatorial Guinea on Sunday. The Chipolopolo drew with Libya 2-2 in the other group A match. Agencies
